Such discharge lamps are known per se. They need to be operated by an electronic ballast that can iteratively apply high-voltage pulses to the discharge lamp. The invention is, however, also directed toward ballasts for other lamp types that can be operated with iteratively generated voltage pulses, specifically in particular to lamps or lamps connected up in such a way that a capacitive characteristic prevails as in the case of dielectrically impeded discharges.
It is, furthermore, known per se to make use of inductors in ballasts for the purpose of generating high-voltage pulses and to generate the desired voltage pulses by means of various transformer concepts, for example so-called forward transformers or isolating transformers. In this case, the inductor can be a simple throttle with taps for a supply circuit and for a lamp circuit including the lamp, or else a so-called autotransformer or, preferred in this case, an isolating transformer. The supply circuit applies current to the inductor and can in this case preferably be switched by a switch denoted here as first switch (primary circuit switch in the case of a transformer).